SillyWilly

Welcome

SillyWilly, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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• Wikinews:Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
• Wikinews:Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced

Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews:

• Wikinews:Introduction - overview of the site
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• Wikinews:Contents - the contents page.

There are always things to do on Wikinews:

• Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
• The front page lead articles often need updating
• Developing stories need finishing and publishing
• Discussions need your input
• And of course, stories need writing!

By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Jason Safoutin 12:37, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

• Thank you very much :) WillJenkins 15:54, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

and another welcome

Hello Will,

since I´m a newbie to audio-wikinews, I just waited, until one of the "pro´s" had welcomed you. :)

I started reading news about two weeks ago with more or less the same intentions than you have.

I´m impressed by the way you read the texts. The modulation (by which I mean, not only the technical revision) of your voice is really good. From the files I could see, that you were "playing" around, like I´m currently still do. Are you using audacity as well?

And allow me one other (serious) question: Do you have an education concerning reading texts, or is it just a gift by nature?

I hope you´ll going to like it here, and contribute a lot more. Tara Gumboyaya 13:48, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Hello! I listened to your recordings to get some idea of what spoken Wikinews was supposed to sound like. I was honestly impressed by how good you are! I was also a little worried I wouldn't come up to the same standard so I'm delighted by your comments. I haven't had any speaking lessons though I am about to complete a degree in Linguistics.

I use Audacity as well because the help page suggested it.

I think Wikinews is a marvellous idea and I'm looking forward to getting more involved!

WillJenkins 23:26, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Wow! What shall I answer to this? :-]

I received already many nice compliments, but your compliment (i.e. by someone, who is reading loads of news as well, and who hasn´t any breaks in the recordings, like I have - which "spring" from the simple fact, that whilst reading, I very often realise: Nah ..., that wasn´t proper English! This must be prounounced otherwise, hence I start again and edit later), is certainly something special.

There is a question I´m putting back an´ forth "within" myself, since I do the recordings for wikinews. But before coming to that, I´m unsure, whether we should put this Q&A to the water cooler. (or, mabye we can copy it later into the water cooler.) I´m unsure, because I think it might be helpful for other (future) newsreaders. Anyhow ...

At the mo´, I´m not to sure, whether I should normalize the voice recordings, or if should enhance them, hence using the full sound possibilities of audacity (That was the reason why I´ve asked, what tool you are using). The "nasty thing", which is involved concerning enhancement, is - of course - that one is also enhancing the background "Rauschen" (This is what we say in Germany for it). But for "Rauschen" my dictionary gives "hiss" (concerning Microphones), and I actually mean the background sounds, or the background noices, which is probably the best way to put it. My confusion comes from the fact, that "hiss" has - for me - the conotation of a smallish sound, whilst "Rauschen" has the conotation of something "a little bit" "bigger", therefore it is more obvious and mabye disturbing for our listeners.

Gosh! This is difficult to explain! I hope you are not reading "garble-warble"! ;-)) So, what is your idea about this, should we "blow up" the recording to it´s ultimate end, or should we just keep it shallow, but clearer? What is your hearing experience?

And finally: Well, I have to admit, I just love the different ways how this wonderful language English can be pronounced, and - even though I´m on dangerous ground here, in a public space like the internet - I do like the diverse British pronounciations most. This "might" also be a reason, why I like to listen to your recordings so very much. DO go on mate!

Gumboyaya 13:31, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Gumboyaya, first an apology for disappearing abruptly, I suddenly became very busy with finishing university. I have a lot more spare time now so I should be back to stay now.

I understand completely what you mean about the hiss on the recordings. I'm afraid I'm no expert with audio software. If you can come up with some good settings I'd be happy to adopt them.

Why not suggest it at the water cooler if you haven't already :) WillJenkins 22:33, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi Will,

today, I wanted to send you a "Good to hear your voice again! :-)"-message, and then I realised, that you´ve wrote an answer to my question.

Concerning your late reply: I´ve finished university a couple of years ago, yet I vividly remember, that every thing else was suddenly quite unimportant. Hence I dearly thank you for your apology. Of course, it wasn´t necessary, but it is nice to read. :)

Talking about hiss-ing-sounds: I guess now, this seemed to be a more personal prob, since my modulation and articulation was - some weeks ago - not that well. I´m a bit more used now to speaking via a microphone. I can hear this by listening to my first audacity-files uploaded to wikinews. :) That is why I think, we can go on by using the full possibilities of audacity, because - IMHO - it is a question of how one pronounciates or articulates, whilst using a microphone.

I - for my part - do not hear "un-hear-able" parts in your recordings concerning this issue. And - moreover - the background-noises can´t be blocked out properly, unless we sit in a proper studio. So - I think - we have to live with that. And I don´t think it is that important, like I thought it to be, a couple of weeks ago (one barely hears tiny mistakes, anyway, since the content is, in what people are interested in). In case I should find solutions to circumvent our tiny little probs (concerning "super"-sound), I will - of course - share them with you.

water-cooler: Since at the mo, there are not that many people reading the news, I don´t know whether it makes sense to post this discussion on the water-cooler. My experience is, that mainly the "writing people" are involved in discussions there. Therefore, I think, we might add it later onto the water-cooler, in case these questions are raised there.

One last remark: :)

Concerning the word "either". I heard an "e-ther", of which I taught that "t´is is" American-English. I "t´ought", you are a Brit?!? ;-)) I might mix up t´ings here, since my schooldays are long gone by. But I certainly would appreciate pronounciation-support.

It´s good to have you back!

And I´m looking forward to lean back and listen to Will Jenkins.

Ta´n´Tara Gumboyaya 21:26, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I was deeply worried that you too had disappeared so I'm glad to see you're still here.

There's a new chap helping with the audio - Skenmy - he's posted here about some ideas he's got. Might be worth having a look and leaving some comments.

I'm afraid you've caught me out. I seem to use both pronunciations of 'either' interchangeably. It's always interesting when someone points out things you haven't even noticed.

WillJenkins 21:48, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Over here I focused recently on reading newsbriefs. I read longer texts now for the Wikipedia.de.

I "met" Skenmy just yesterday on IRC. And he promptly helped me to find a tiny mistake I´ve made. :)

Gumboyaya 07:42, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Audio recording of Australia will help in East Timor if requested: Downer

Hi Will... I just listend to your audio for this article, and wanted to let you know that it sounded great! Keep it up! - Borofkin 23:27, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

A very belated thank you. Real life got on top of me for a while, but I'm back again! WillJenkins 22:33, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

iPod ???

Hi Will,

your reply on http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/User:Skenmy/Ideas gave me the idea, that I might have “tread on your foot”. Which wasn´t at all my intention.

To make this clear (at least I hope I can do): In recent days I was wondering what podcasting is, as such. Because I don´t know about it. All my search-tries lead me to pages, where people where discussing things, which I couldn´t follow, since I´m not firm with this issue.

I do not have an iPod or whatever other Pods there may be. I know some people who have one, and I know vaguely that there are MAC-Pods and than that those seemed to have been followed by the “answer” of the monopoly Microsoft.

What´s the point behind all this? Is an RSS audio file for podcasting not working on a MAC-iPod, because it is based on ogg-files? Is that the reason, why you´ve started the request for MP3-files, or do I mix several different discussions here?

I´d dearly appreciate it, if you could help me to understand the background of the discussion better. Tara Gumboyaya 02:48, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Gumboyaya, you haven't upset me at all! Podcasting in general is where someone produces an amateur radio show and makes it available for download. Usually RSS is used to make the download automatic. For example, I listen to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. I leave my iPod connected to my computer and every morning the latest edition is uploaded to it. I can then take my iPod out and listen to the program wherever I am.

Podcasting is no longer limited to just the iPod. There is a lot of software for both Windows and the Mac which can subscribe and lots of different portable players which do the same. But by choosing a format like Ogg, which most players (including the iPod) can't play, Wikinews is limiting the number of people who can listen. There are *no* players which can't play mp3.

The problem is going to be one of ethics. Wikipedia/Wikinews/Wikimedia aren't interested in producing good news sites, good encyclopaedias - they're interested in furthering the awareness of the Creative Commons. All this work we do is about furthering the religion of open, copyright-free, content. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that we can never use mp3. This is because anyone who produces software which can decode mp3 (iTunes/Windows Media Player/VLC/Audacity) is supposed to pay a licence fee. Most don't, but the threat of asking for one always hangs over their heads. This offends the Wikipeople who choose to force an open format on everyone. They believe that the more people who know about Ogg, the more people will abandon mp3. This probably would work on Wikipedia because of its popularity, but Wikinews doesn't have the same pulling power.

This is all I intend to say on the subject because I'm not interested in turning this into a personal crusade. I am not trying to antagonise the community, but I do feel that a review of policy doesn't hurt every now and then.

WillJenkins 09:54, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks very much indeed for your explanation! I admit, I more or less guessed something like this, but now I know it, which is a lot nicer. :)

Concerning the problem What-do-we-use and What-is-the majority-using I get your point. (My experience for example is, that many of my friends - actually pretty much most of them - who asked me: "Where do you read texts/news briefs?", later told me: "I can´t listen to it. Doesn´t work on my PC. Don´t know how to implement the necessary feature. etc." Since some of my friends are living as far away as Sydney, AUS, it is quite difficult to explain to them how they can be able to implement ogg-files. This has of course to do with the fact that most of the people I know are mainly users. They are not interested in installing this and implementing that to their computers, because they are happy to have a running system.)

You´ve written: "But the threat of asking for one (licence) always hangs over their heads." I understand it like this, that this threat would be "hanging above the ´head´ of wikinews" as well. Hence I do understand the unwillingness to use MP3, even though it limits the reach of the programm.

Anyway, we certainly can´t discuss this matter to the end. Mabye we have to be patient up until the moment, when ogg-files are normal for the majority of the users. Afterall, more and more companies and even public organisations in Germany switch to Linux in recent months. Don´t know whether this is an ongoing process, but it definitely helps to boost the open source idea.

Gumboyaya 13:52, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Pirate Party audio

Great work, thanks! I was actually giving a presentation about Wikinews to some citizen radio projects a couple of days ago. I showed them the interview as an example of the original reporting work we do -- and was very pleasantly surprised to see an audio version at the bottom where there previously had been none. Of course it made a nice addition to my presentation! :-) I also think you did an excellent job changing the tone of your voice during the question/answer exchanges. Please keep the audio files coming!--Eloquence 19:12, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you! It's very kind of you to say so :) WillJenkins 10:48, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Audio Wikinews...

Thanks for recording..

Perhaps you could assist Nichols Turnball on getting the NewsBriefs to be a regular daily service ? ShakespeareFan00 00:04, 13 January 2008 (UTC)